The political types down at the state capital are scrambling to finish the bills they want signed before the end of session. One such document involves a mandate for hospitals to form boards of nurses who in some way dictate the required staff levels in Minnesota hospitals. The largest hospital in MN, and most famous, said not so fast. Mayo Clinic threatened to take a sizable investment elsewhere should this come to be.
Last week, I predicted here that this wrinkle would be ironed out.
But what’s interesting is the justification that the speaker of the house used to explain why Mayo is getting a carve-out in the bill. In an interview yesterday Hortman tells Esme Murphy that the hospital operates at a different level than others in the state as they cater to famous dignitaries from around the world. The implication is that the demands of competing worldwide for care are a valid substitute for regulatory intrusion from a board of nurses.
I wish this type of platter identification (the medical provision at a worldwide level, versus a metro level, versus an outstate level, to give a few possible divisions) was used more widely in the analysis and provision of public goods.
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